Pumpkin Chunkin Weekend @ Great Country Farms(Bluemont, VA)
Bring your leftover jack-o-lantern and let it fly. The Silo Drop and the Zip Wire Sploosh let you do the smashin’ yourself or bring your pumpkin to the Pumpkin Drop Zone and add it to the upside down “fireworks display” as the pumpkins are dropped from a lift over the parking lot.

Swordsmen’s Rendezvous @ Gadsby’s Tavern Museum (Alexandria, VA)
Children experience a unique living history program as they learn a skill all 18th-century gentlemen needed to know – swordplay. The program includes re-enactment of 18th-century swordplay and a display of 18th-century weapons. The popular family event includes some audience participation as kids practice their new-found talents. Advance registration is required.

Make your own Drum

Spark!Lab: Make Your Own Drum @ National Museum of American History (DC)
Visitors to Spark!Lab construct their own drums out of recyclable materials and then join in facilitated mini drum circles. At 5pm there is a larger drum circle led by Remo Belli in the Flag Hall.

Family Tree @ The Historical Society of Washington, DC
Families can create and decorate a family tree showing their unique heritage. HSW provides the supplies needed to complete each tree.

Workshop: Sounds Crazy with Al Simmons @ McLean Center (McLean)
Build musical instruments made from junk with Al Simmons. The workshop will consist of a demonstration of the science of sound with Al’s homemade orchestral instruments. Workshop will conclude with a giant jam session!

Sunday, November 8th

Berlin Wall Family Day @ Newseum (DC)
Celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall at the Newseum with activities such as painting a message on the Newseum’s re-creation of the Berlin Wall, playing Front Page Frenzy and NewsMania, going on the News Hound scavenger hunt, and much more. Washington artist Tim Conlon is also on hand for a talk-and-draw demonstration of graffiti styles and techniques and to discuss how graffiti has been used as a form of protest.

Terra Cotta

Family Program: Terrific Terra Cotta @ National Building Museum (DC)
Families can experiment with terra cotta – the material featured in the museum’s frieze and on the bases of its famous Corinthian columns – using molds to make their own terra cotta friezes to take home and bake.